Abstract
In the early 1960s, human skeletal remains of several individuals were found in apparent association with late Pleistocene mammals during an excavation at Devil's Den sinkhole in Levy County, Florida. The rarity of these associations in Florida and across the Americas is well-known. Most sites suggesting this antiquity contain diagnostic lithic and bone artifacts, but no human remains. Very little has been published about the Devil's Den site, and the human remains were not available for study until 2003. Unfortunately, neither the human nor animal bones can be dated by the radiocarbon method due to a lack of sufficient surviving collagen. We present new data indicating that the concentrations of rare earth elements preserved in the bones of the human skeletal remains and associated latest Pleistocene faunas are indistinguishable, and significantly greater than a control group of modern mammals. We interpret these results to indicate that the humans found at Devil's Den were contemporaneous with the extinct latest Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) fauna, about 13 ka.
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